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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24689185">Charity Case With Benefits</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayGlenn/pseuds/MayGlenn'>MayGlenn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dialogue Heavy, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory Negotiations, Sharing a Bed, Tag to 2x10: American Woman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:33:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,512</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24689185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayGlenn/pseuds/MayGlenn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Well...this is awkward,” Michael said, unhelpfully. </p><p>“There is nothing awkward about this,” Maria insisted. </p><p>“Unless you’re gonna make it awkward,” Alex said, desperately trying not to make it awkward.</p><p>“I can sleep on the pull-out?” Michael offered. </p><p>“No, I should offer to sleep on the pull-out,” Alex said— not quite an offer. </p><p>“You guys keep saying ‘pull out’ and that’s making this way more awkward,” Maria laughed, and that broke the tension.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Maria DeLuca &amp; Alex Manes, Maria DeLuca/Michael Guerin, Maria DeLuca/Michael Guerin/Alex Manes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>94</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Maria DeLuca Weekend 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Charity Case With Benefits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>If Isobel's car broke down on the way back from the Reservation...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Well...this is awkward,” Michael said, unhelpfully. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is nothing awkward about this,” Maria insisted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unless you’re gonna make it awkward,” Alex said, desperately trying not to make it awkward. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can sleep on the pull-out?” Michael offered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I should offer to sleep on the pull-out,” Alex said— not quite an offer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys keep saying ‘pull out’ and that’s making this way more awkward,” Maria laughed, and that broke the tension. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were stuck in a wacky motel in the middle of nowhere after Isobel’s car broke down on the way back from the Reservation, and after much discussion of ‘there’s no possible way three dudes are fitting in one queen bed, especially when one of them is Max Beefcake Evans,’ they split the only two single-queen rooms (one with a pull-out couch bed) by Isobel and Max, and Maria, Michael and Alex. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve already had a threesome, how hard is this going to be?” Maria asked, still snorting with laughter. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t say hard!” Michael said, rolling over in bed to tickle her sides. This made her shriek and thrash, and the headboard hit the wall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh now they </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely</span>
  </em>
  <span> think we’re having sex,” Alex groaned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” Michael said, and let that hang, perhaps afraid of finishing the sentence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was up to Maria, then. As usual. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> didn’t want you to leave that morning,” Maria tried. “And you know Guerin didn’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were all laying more or less on their backs in the dark, Michael in the middle. If Michael was her heart, that alone should tell Alex how much she trusted him with it? How she was okay with sharing Michael if it made all three of them happy? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instead, no, God, they had to be so fussy. They both loved </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she knew that, and that made it okay for her to try to figure out what was going on between </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know,” Alex said softly. Then he took a deep breath, but Michael spoke first. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why’d you say you </span>
  <em>
    <span>used </span>
  </em>
  <span>to think we’d end up together?” Michael sounded almost hurt, if she didn’t know any better. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why’d you agree with me?” Alex replied. He sounded too tired to be hurt, as if that was the moral high ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, you said </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> to each other?” Maria said, clambering over them (she needed to be within slugging range of both of these morons) and shoving Guerin over. He went where directed quite meekly, which was something she loved about him. “After that beautiful night?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Beautiful?” Michael repeated, timidly looking at Alex for confirmation. “I thought it was like a...goodbye. I knew I wanted to try things with you and...” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was more like a </span>
  <em>
    <span>ciao</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Maria said firmly, annoyed and sitting up. “It can mean hello or goodbye depending on context. It’s 2019 and we’re all grown-ass adults. Do you think we can’t work this out? I’d suggest another threesome, but apparently you two live up to stereotypes and don’t talk.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex, who had been quiet throughout this exchange, still thought loudly. “He chose you, and that’s fine. I’m okay with that. I’m getting to be okay with that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex,” Maria said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Michael doesn’t have to choose unless he wants to. Or I guess unless you want him to. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> don’t want him to have to.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t?” Michael asked. His eyes were huge, like they had been in the airstream when she took his hand and pulled him down between them. ‘What are we doing?’ he had asked. She had thought her ‘It’s okay,’ had been explanation enough. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clearly, it hadn’t. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. I don’t. You obviously love Alex, even though you two seem to keep hurting each other. I love you, and I know you love me: why would I want to keep you from loving Alex? Is your love finite?” She turned back around to Alex, who actually jumped a little. “Was it the threesome? Was that too much? We can discuss boundaries.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex laughed, blushing. “I promise, the proximity of your vagina was not what scared me off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I know. I mean was it because you had three whole feelings and <em>that’s</em> what scared you off?” Maria said, and kissed his cheek. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In my defense, it was at least five,” Alex replied, sheepish. "Possibly as many as seven." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maria sat back and looked between them in the dark. “Now I know this isn’t my job, or my business, strictly, but we’ll call it a charity case with benefits. Michael, how do you feel about Alex and me? Be honest now, I’m still psychic.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took off her necklace just to be sure. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you both,” Michael said immediately, either because he secretly was the biggest alien sap in Roswell (and that was with Max Evans for competition) or because he was afraid of lying to her. “If it has to be different kinds of love, I can do that. But I could never stop loving either of you. My love is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> finite.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maria, struck by the tenderness of a man who deep down was just a little boy who never got to have or keep anything he wanted, brushed her fingers through his hair, heedless of his fragile curls (she never let him touch her hair, but he loved it when she touched his). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s lip was already trembling, so minutely she could barely see it, even before she said, “Alex? What about you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want either of you to ever not be a part of my life again,” he said, all in a rush, the most certain about that. The next part came slower: “Even though it hurts to see you together. I’m trying not to be jealous. I’m just stuck on Guerin and you’re my best friend…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stuck on?” Maria repeated. Alex required a sterner tone, something to push against. “So you want me to handle the anniversaries and romantic dinners and you just want to fuck him occasionally?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Alex said, appropriately scandalized. He seemed to think about what he wanted to say this time, and then sort of gave up. “You’re terrible at remembering dates. I would obviously handle the anniversaries. Hypothetically. If we both dated him and remained best friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, hypothetically,” Maria said, like she was letting him think this was all his idea and she was just agreeing with him, and she knew it, and he knew it, too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can we just…” Alex began miserably. “Can we just pretend I never walked out on you that morning and try again?”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I vote we do the evening part over again, too,” Michael said, raising his hand adorably like he was actually voting. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just to be clear, you’re talking about the threesome and not the part where I got stabbed,” Alex laughed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, by the </span>
  <em>
    <span>awl</span>
  </em>
  <span>, or…” Michael teased, running his tongue over the inside of his cheek. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, you two,” Maria said, annoyed, only to find that they both were not only looking at her, then, but actually looking </span>
  <em>
    <span>to</span>
  </em>
  <span> her, like she was the one in charge of directing...whatever this was going to be. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(And if that wasn’t an </span>
  <em>
    <span>I love you</span>
  </em>
  <span> from Alex right there, she didn’t know what was: he never gave up control of anything.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took a deep breath, wondering if this was a project she actually wanted to take on. And like the mercenary she was, she weighed the pros and cons: the emotional labor of managing two emotionally constipated male egos against the amount of love she’d get in return, not to mention the other perks, the upper body strength, free car repairs, and computer repairs, and breakfast in bed, and physical care and protection (which she didn’t need but </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span>), someone to make the bed with military corners, the music and jam sessions, the D... </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The math wasn’t hard. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But, “Let’s sleep on it,” she said, firmly. “If you two solve all your problems with sex, this’ll be good for you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not...</span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them,” Michael protested petulantly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Maria was already situating herself in between them for bed, her knees and elbows and pillow-adjusting ruining any kind of romantic mood. Rolling toward Michael she said, “Alex, you’re on big spoon duty.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m usually a back sleeper.” Alex said, shoving her over, and Guerin with her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, when you’re not sharing a queen-sized bed with two other adults you can be picky.” Maria grunted, pushing back against him. “No more threesomes until one of us buys a King.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We managed the airstream fine, how is this not working?!” Michael complained, nearly falling off the bed. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“OH WOULD YOU JUST GO TO SLEEP?!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Isobel called from the next room, banging on the very thin wall. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How much of that did you </span>
  <span>hear</span>
  <span>?” Maria demanded, sitting bolt upright. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Enough! Congratulations! Please go the fuck to sleep!”</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to murder her,” Maria grumbled, squeezing Guerin close as Alex pulled her closer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t! She’s your great-great-whatever-aunt!” Michael protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Heard that, too! Sweet dreams, throuple!”</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“UGH.” </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The prompt for day one was Favorite Trope. Bed Sharing is in the introduction to my dissertation...</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        A [Restricted Work] by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Podcath/pseuds/Podcath">Podcath</a>
 Log in to view.
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
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